Artificial Womb Technology
POSTED BY: BYTEMITE
UPDATED: Thursday, August 7, 2014 04:28
VIEWED: 9348
PAGE 3 of 3
I think that when Magons began talking about bottlefeeding, presumably WITH breastmilk, and promoting breastfeeding even when there might be reasons why a woman would have been bottlefeeding at that point in time, this conversation became strongly about natural biology versus unnatural science.
And if you want to ask, yes, so long as science is involved, I'll choose unnatural science over natural biology any day of the week.
Natural biological processes are, as you say, flawed as hell. Me , I see something like this and I think let's do this without the flaws and the stigmas.
The way people talk about natural childbirth, you'd think it's the only source of voice and power that women have, an appeasement to the rest of humanity about why we have a valid place. Like we're worried that a machine will "take our job" and we'll become unneccessary. Which is incongrous with how pregnancy and childbirth have been used to oppress us for so long.
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Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Natural biological processes are, as you say, flawed as hell. Me , I see something like this and I think let's do this without the flaws and the stigmas.
The way people talk about natural childbirth, you'd think it's the only source of voice and power that women have, an appeasement to the rest of humanity about why we have a valid place. Like we're worried that a machine will "take our job" and we'll become unneccessary. Which is incongrous with how pregnancy and childbirth have been used to oppress us for so long.
I think you are inflating the attitudes of only a small number of women into something we, supposedly, use to oppress ourselves on a grand scale.
I can only guess - because that's how I read it - that Magons was trying to counter a tone in your post that put its own stigma on natural childbirth, as opposed to merely celebrating a greater amount of choice for all women.
That doesn't seem liberating but rather creates more division.
To offer a different perspective: It would be my preference to experience pregnancy and childbirth (with available pain relief, yes) because it is an intense human experience.
Not because I feel it is either a duty or a noble achievement or in some way a mark on my identity as a woman.
I completely respect anyone who would choose differently. But I would prefer to see the same respect awarded to my choices, not have self-oppressing motives attributed to them.
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That's because there IS a stigma on childbirth and pregnancy. The primary reason women are paid less is due to lingering beliefs that they'll eventually become pregnant and be distracted from their job or even leave their job, horror of horrors, because they decided to start a family. Even if they're single and have been for years, somehow somewhere, BABY will happen so better pay them all less.
Also my comments about pregnancy as a validation for women were not really about anything anyone here said, though G's remarks come rather uncomfortably close.
However I recognize your intense human experience - though I caution that I am not sure it is a defining human experience and that being deprived of this doesn't make someone inhuman. I also would like to say that it would still very likely be safer and more convenient for you if you took the unnatural option.
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I get the stigma you are describing. But what I was referring to was the fact that erasing birth isn't, in my eyes, the right response, because it validates that stigma instead of removing it. Pregnancy and birth aren't the issue in that context, attitudes toward them are.
Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
However I recognize your intense human experience - though I caution that I am not sure it is a defining human experience and that being deprived of this doesn't make someone inhuman. I also would like to say that it would still very likely be safer and more convenient for you if you took the unnatural option.
I didn't say defining, and - heh, good one - I phrased it as human mainly to make it distinct from being "merely" female. It's one of the most intense physical and emotional experiences in the human repertoire, is what I meant.
I do agree on safety and convenience, btw, but my life priorities lean toward a calculated risk in this case.
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As a man I am reading these exchanges with great interest, only to realize once again being male I have no say in this. Chalk that up to my being an independent and not alliance.
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Okay AR. I think I understand where you are coming from then.
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